How a positive work environment contributes to the customer experience

We might hold the tools to create high-quality products for our customers, but if our employees can’t use them or feel like they don’t contribute, we might as well have nothing.

One of our top priorities at Custom Castings is creating an engaging and transparent work environment where our team is given opportunities to grow and succeed while contributing to our to our goals and the customer experience.

IMPLEMENTING OUR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM

Our Continuous Improvement Program creates practical solutions that make sense. Our employees encounter challenges and obstacles in their workplaces and have the ability to make them better and safer.

This has been successful for us because employees take ownership over their workspaces – they formulate the ideas, define goals and objectives, and have the freedom to run with it as a team.

IMPROVING COMMUNICATION AND TRANSPARENCY

We want our employees to feel like they contribute to our goals, objectives, and the customer experience. We apply simple tactics to achieve this:

DAILY HUDDLES

Our employees take part in daily huddles to plan and strategize tasks for their work day. We also use our daily huddles to collaborate and overcome challenges we may have faced in the previous work day.

Our work stations also include a communication board that’s used to display schedules, safety concerns, and highlight our performance.

EXECUTIVE WALKS

Every two weeks CCL executives get together and walk the facility. The executives interact with employees and catch up with upcoming, ongoing, and completed projects (both Continuous Improvement and client-related projects). By carrying this out, we promote two-way communication where both parties provide recognition, receive feedback, and converse about projects.

We’re all one team at Custom Castings and we all work toward the same goals – the more open we are, the more they feel like they’re a part of one.

TRANSITIONING TO CELLULAR MANUFACTURING

In one of our previous articles, we addressed how transitioning to cellular manufacturing has developed multi-skilled employees who have the ability to maintain and improve their respective cells. Even dating back to the planning stages of our transition, our employees led this project and designed our new cells.

Since cellular manufacturing gives our employees more opportunities to succeed, they’re more engaged. They take responsibility in the product’s development from raw material to packaged goods.

We constantly work to improve our work environment and develop confident, engaged employees. Employees with these traits manufacture products with expertise and attention, allowing us to ensure a positive customer experience.